Lehigh County commissioners not sold on Cedarbrook upgrades

Allentown Cedarbrook Nursing Home's fortunes changed just this year, when the county was forced to dump another $3 million into the home to keep it running through the end of the year.

Allentown Cedarbrook Nursing Home's fortunes changed just this year, when the county was forced to dump another $3 million into the home to keep it running through the end of the year. (JENNA MASON / THE MORNING CALL)

Of The Morning Call

Commissioners want a better picture of the administration's vision for Cedarbrook.

Lehigh County Commissioner Vic Mazziotti said Wednesday that plans to attract higher-paying patients to subsidize a nursing home with a mission to serve the community's neediest put him in a philosophical bind.

Those plans would upgrade a wing of Lehigh County's ailing Cedarbrook nursing home to attract desirable short-term rehabilitation residents whose Medicare policies pay at a higher rate than Medicaid.

"Our objective is to serve those who are most vulnerable, which some would argue is a public good," Mazziotti said. "Any yet, to serve those, we're moving into arenas that aren't really public goods."

The county-owned nursing home struggles to attract short-term rehab residents, who can choose from more modern facilities for their stay. The project, which early estimates peg at nearly $1.5 million, would renovate the wing into a more competitive unit with private and semi-private rooms with attached bathrooms.

County officials say the changes are needed to turn around the home's finances, namely the subsidy from county coffers that spiked last year. From 2011 to 2013, the county's financial contributions to Cedarbrook rose from $535,576 to $6.3 million, a 1,090 percent increase.

A consultant hired by the commissioners also reported that the South Whitehall Township facility's outdated layout was undermining its ability to attract residents.

Filling the home with Medicaid residents isn't a viable solution, new Cedarbrook Administrator Terry Hollinger countered.

"We still continue our mission," he continued. "But this board … asked me for a plan on how we survive. This is how we survive."

Data released Wednesday by the county administration indicate that by filling just six additional short-term rehab slots year-round, the new wing would turn a profit that would pay off the improvements in four years. Those new residents would also put the county's Medicare percentage of its population on par with the state average of 5 percent, Hollinger said.

Commissioners in August balked at Executive Tom Muller's request for millions of dollars in capital improvements, voting to scratch it from his proposed 2015 capital improvements budget. Commissioners, who have used their fiscal authority as leverage to demand more oversight of Cedarbrook, said Muller's plan for the home was weak and underdeveloped.

Muller then looked to $1.4 million in unspent bond proceeds to pay for the upgrades, but commissioners elected instead to use some of that money to fill the 2015 budgeted deficit.

The administration's latest push asks for $250,000 for engineering and architectural work.

On Wednesday, commissioners postponed voting on the initial planning, saying they didn't have a complete picture of the administration's vision for the home.

"I want to know what the end product is going to look like," Commissioner Mike Schware said. "By doing it piecemeal, we possibly allow ourselves to start down the wrong road."